Move Over Cannes, It’s the Twickenham Film Festival

Cannes

Film buffs among the twickerati might fancy a visit to Cannes, Venice or Sundance (is that even a real place?) but there’s a new kid on the block who’s going to give them a run for their money, whilst pushing the envelope and raising the bar. Do what? It’s only bloody well the first Twickenham Film Festival, isn’t it?

Organised by Twickenham Alive with support from El Brute, the R FU and the R&TT among others, the festival has seen a veritable deluge of entries. The theme for submissions of 10 minute shorts was “Where You Live” and films have been received, not just from around the local area, but from across the UK and even overseas. Among the local entries is The Magick of Twickenham, produced and directed by Toby Alington and set in Church Street and by the Naked Ladies, or ‘the Oceanides’ if you want to get all fussy about it. There are also films from The Teddington Society, students from Richmond College, Richmond Adult College and even regular, normal members of the public.

Did the team at twickerati submit an entry? Well, that really would be telling wouldn’t it. In other words, an unequivocal ‘no’.

The glittering awards ceremony is certain to be an interesting evening, so if you fancy getting along to hear the winners announced and see a selection of the best entries then you’ll need to leave your superyacht at home and get over to Twickenham Stadium on 26th April. The event runs from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. It’s free but you will need to register in advance.

“All right Mr. De Mille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

LINK:
* Twickenham Film Festival

EXPO A GO GO
And if that’s not enough for you, on the same day in the very same place the Richmond Business Expo takes place. It will feature over 80 local businesses gathered in one spot to network, talk to potential customers, suppliers and even to regular punters about what they can offer. Expect a right old mix from web designers to solicitors to fitness experts to the Council. It’s also free to attend and might be worth a look especially if you want to ‘shop local’ for your business services. The Expo runs from 10.30am to 6.30pm at Twickenham Stadium.

LINK:
* Richmond Business Expo 2013

Event Reminder: Holi

A date for your diary that you might be interested in. And who knows we might even add some more interesting dates over the next week or two to create one of our great twickerati What’s On non-spectaculars. And, FYI, that was a ‘might’ not a ‘will’. But whaveski, we just wanted to mention Holi. It’s the Hindu Festival of Colour, a lively, vibrant and 100% colourful spring festival. To welcome the arrival of spring (and to be honest it feels as if we’re still waiting) on Saturday 23rd March there will be entertainment starting off in Church Street at midday and running throughout the afternoon and also a whole bunch of stuff happening at Orleans House Gallery. Like what? Well, like music, dancing, excellent south Asian food, a little bit of craziness and a whole lot of powdered paint being thrown around from 1.00pm to 4.00pm. It looked a bit like this last year. It’s well worth a visit, just make sure you don’t wear your brand new white suit.

Holi celebrations, Twickenham

LINKS:
* More LBRuT Holi info
* Photos and a video of Holi in Twickenham in 2012

And here are some photos of a cold, sleety and very muddy Holi 2013. The weather didn’t stop these people enjoying themselves. Spring? Who needs spring?

The 2012 Twickenham Festive 5s. Let’s Hear Yours

Blimey! It’s nearly Christmas. Are you trembling with excitement at the prospect safe in the knowledge that the cake is baked, the presents beautifully wrapped and the cards all written just waiting to be popped into the postbox? And not just any postbox, thank you very much, but a bright red pillar box with VR on the front and a robin perched atop. Wearing a tiny knitted scarf. And boots. Hang on a minute, the little fellow is chirruping away at you. How cute, he’s actually saying something! What’s that little robin? Oh. He wants to know if you’ve still got the receipt for the boots. He doesn’t like the colour. The ungrateful swine! Yes, why oh why can’t Christmas be like it used to be with a piece of coal for a present, a single orange instead of a turkey and just the one day off work. Why indeed?

Christmas What’s On

Christmas time, mistletoe and wine,
most of our shops sport a charity sign;
But with hand-crafted coffee and an artisan treat,
we ponder the state of our local high street.

Despite it being a time-consuming exercise involving endless Googling and plagiarising, the team has put together a quick guide to some of the events going on in Twickenham over the next few weeks. Keen observers may have spotted that Christmas falls during that period, which is a handy co-incidence given that there’s so much happening. Funny how things work out isn’t it?

CHRISTMAS TURN-ONS

St Margarets Christmas Fair – Sunday 9th Dec
The Fair takes place on Crown Road between 11.00am & 4.00pm with festive food, drinks, stalls, games and an open-air carol service. More info.

Twickenham Green – Sunday 16th Dec
Wooo! Twickenham Green is also doing a switch-on this year. There’ll be a Christmas Fayre, stalls, food & drink, carol singing, snow(!) and the presence of Mr Rob Brydon to do the honours with the lights. Yes people, Sir Robworth of Brydonshire himself will be there. In your face Teddington! Starts at 4.00pm with the switch-on at 5.45pm.

OTHER CHRISTMAS ACTIVITY THINGS

Green to Become White?

Although mentioning Christmas events too early should be an offence punishable by death, followed by ten years in prison and a £50 fine, we thought it worth the briefest of references to two dates for your diary. As you already know from our quest to find the most appropriate person to turn on the lights, the big Twickenham switch on is Friday November 30th. We’re talking Church Street, a tree, a local celeb, a Christmas market, food and drink, a marching band etc. It’s always a good do.

But if you’re not done with that, then on Sunday 16th December there will be a community event on Twickenham Green. Mulled wine, misteltoe, chestnuts, carols, Cliff Richard, the Sally Army band, kids rides and, wait for it, maybe, just maybe, snow! Don’t knock it, it could happen. Well, forget about Cliff and all of those things might very well happen, including the white stuff. We’ll do more soon on local festive activities coming up but we don’t want to face the indignity of the whole execution, prison, fine business. It’s simply not the twickerati way.

A Twickfest Litfest

UPDATE: Have you been to any Lit Fest events yet? The festival is about half way through and there’s plenty still to come whether it’s part of the main event or at the Literary Salon. And there’s even a special twickerati 2 for 1 offer for this Friday’s spoken word double bill with Martin Figura and Byron Vincent. See below for more details.

Ice Rink Approved

It’s 20 years since Richmond ice rink in East Twickenham was demolished to make way for flats but ice skating is set to return to Twickenham this winter. Last week’s LBRuT planning committee gave the go ahead for a temporary rink in the grounds of York House. Good news for local skaters and for Richmond councillors and council workers looking to burn off some energy after a hard day’s graft at El Brute Enterprises.

The plans, put forward by Twickenham Alive, will see the rink located on top of the tennis courts in the grounds of the house, next to Sion Road. There’s been plenty of support for the idea from those who think it will give Twickenham something a little bit extra this winter. But there’s also been quite a lot of opposition, mainly on the grounds of disruption, noise, smells (from hot food outlets, not the skaters), lack of parking. And traffic. Basically from people who just don’t want it there.

Already you’re thinking, “York House is not quite Hampton Court Palace or Somerset House but if they can do it, then why the hell can’t Twickenham?” OK, perhaps the comparisons aren’t totally fair, it’ll be an interesting experiment and it could be a very decent evening’s entertainment sipping mulled wine, watching Lord True perfect his triple salchows in the blue corner while Vince Cable practises his double toe-loops over in the yellow one. Who’s in?

LINKS:
* Twickenham Alive
* Planning committee webcast – decision at c1hr 20mins
* Planning application

Autumn What’s On

We might do some autumn listings. Might not. Just depends, like. It just depends on things like whether we can actually be bothered to do all the hard work before it’s too late. Meanwhile, as we mull it over, time, that wily thief, slips past us unnoticed, picking the hopes and dreams from our pockets and replacing them with memories and regrets. So with September’s “back to school” freshness still infusing our spirits but tempered by the knowledge that melancholic autumn evenings will soon be closing in, here’s an initial selection of things to entertain you. Be lucky:

The Olympics Are Here

Well, they’re finally here.After much planning, building, ticketing, fussing, sponsoring, proud partnering and not a little last minute panicking the Olympics are upon us. At last. Almost. The army are getting ready, the athletes are here, and the presidents and their flunkies are upping the limits on their platinum credit cards. And hey, even some fans have turned up. Even little old Twickenham gets its slice of the games. So then, what we got?

Twickenham Festival: How was it for you?

So, Twickenham Festival has now ended. As the food stalls, paddleboards, music stages, beer tents, dragon boats and kids rides get packed up for another year and the padlocks firmly secured on Pope’s Grotto and JMW Turner’s house, we ask the question, “How was it for you”? OK, so it’s not quite like that and there’s no huge lock-up in a railway arch where Arthur Daley is storing all that kit for the next 11 1/2 months but we like the idea of it anyway. And fret not, there are still a lot of events going on over the summer which you can check out on our What’s On page (see Index menu) but the Festival proper is now done & dusted.

A lot of work goes into putting on the activities and so we’ll add a word of thanks to all those who helped make it happen especially the folks at Twickenham Alive, LBRuT (yes, El Brute), the Twickenham Town Business Association (including its Chairman Bruce “Crusader Travel” Lyons). Cheers folks.

The weather was a bit crap for most of it but the turn out seemed pretty good. Did you go to much? Did you go to too much? Too many events? Or too few? If you didn’t show up, what would you want to see at a Twickenham Festival to grab your attention? Too many questions? Time for some answers then. Off you go…

P.S. One link:
* The twickerati Twickenham Festival & Carnival Photo Gallery